Lincroft, NJ and Wilmington, DE

On October 2nd, Brother Ed dropped me off in Greenwich, Connecticut, and I headed to Lincroft, New Jersey, to stay with the Christian Brothers once again. I stayed at De La Salle Hall, a nursing home that is currently housing close to 30 Christian Brothers. As I have mentioned in my previous posts, a big part of my trip is ministry of presence- just being there for other people. My stay at De La Salle Hall was really focused on that. Every day during my stay, I spent time visiting with the Brothers.

In addition to talking with the Brothers, I decided to dazzle them with some cards tricks. Trick after trick (I only know two) was executed to perfection! The reactions played out as follows:

Me: Is this your card?

Brother: Yes.

Both: … Silence.

Me: How about that?

Brother: How about what?

Me: Pretty good, huh?

Brother: I know how you did it.

Me: I need to get going now.

After the crowd stopped chanting my name and the five minute standing ovation came to an end, I decided to put my cards away and continue visiting with the Brothers. While I was talking with one of the Brothers, I asked him what he did for fun. He said that he didn’t really have a lot of fun. I told him that was about to change! After I listed off some fun activities, he told me that the only thing that sounded fun was playing Uno. Per his request, we set up shop at an open table and played a couple games. After he won both games, we called it a day. He thanked me for playing and told me that it was the best part of his day!

In addition to visiting with the Brothers at meals, I got to spend some time with a couple of Brothers who were dependent on other people to get where they needed to go. Seeing that it was a nice day out, I decided to take one of the Brothers on a walk to get some fresh air. After returning, one of the nonverbal Brothers waved me down and pointed to the chair next to him. For the next 20 minutes, we sat there together just listening to music. No words were needed. A simple handshake said it all.

On October 7th, I said goodbye to the Brothers and I headed to Delaware. Since I had no place to stay in Delaware, I decided to stop for a bit and pick up garbage at Bellevue State Park in Wilmington. After an hour of walking the paths and crawling through the woods to round up bottles and bags, I thanked the staff and headed towards Washington, D.C.

Thank you to Brother Charles for hosting me. Thank you to the De La Salle Hall staff for taking care of the Brothers. Thank you to all the Brothers for dedicating your life to serving others. Thank you to the Bellevue State Park staff for allowing me to help on short notice. And thank you to all of you who continue to pray for me and support me!